DirecTV D11 Serial (USB) control works

[Se7enLC]

I'm just visiting from the MythTV world and thought I would share that controlling the DirecTV D11 box via cable works great, and I was able to get it to work from windows as well (so it should work for you guys, too). Here's how I did it:

In Linux: I modified an existing direcTV control script to use a different serial module (Device::SerialPort), which allowed me to turn on hardware flow control. That, combined with 115200bps and the D10 command-set, the D11 was flying high. It needed to change channels by using the SendUserCommand function instead of the OpenChannel function (for some reason OpenChannel doesn't work on this box).

In Windows: I took that modified script and changed out Device::SerialPort for Win32::SerialPort (function-compatible modules) and changed a few other small things (/usr/bin/perl to C:\perl\bin\perl.exe, /dev/ttyS0 to COM1, etc). I actually had to turn flow control OFF to make it work in windows, not sure why that is.

Anyway, the whole writeup for the D11 control is on this wiki:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php...TV_D11_via_USB

I added a section on there for how to install the needed modules for perl in windows (installing modules without CPAN is a real pain!)

Also - there is a command for turning the OSD on and off, so I added that to the script. Gets rid of the blue bar accross the top that tells you the channel.

If anybody has a D11, give this a try and let me know how it works for you, I'd be happy to debug it as best as I can (I spent quite awhile toying with this box when I first got it, so I'll pass along whatever I can)

[cybrmage]

I have added info for incorporating this with SageTV to the other D11 thread here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17179

Thanks Se7enLC... Great work!

[dagar]

Great gouge Se7enLC! Thanks for the tips. Very smooth on removing the OSD from the STB. Any idea if that'll work for the D10-100?

[Se7enLC]

Originally Posted by dagar

Great gouge Se7enLC! Thanks for the tips. Very smooth on removing the OSD from the STB. Any idea if that'll work for the D10-100?

I suppose that it would work, the protocol specifications that I worked from are for the D10, D11, and H10. I'm not sure that my script will still work with the D10, even though the option is listed there. It *should*, but I'm not able to test it since I only have a D11. (if anyone can test it and let me know that it works, that would be great!)

I also just found another command that works on the D11 - Disable Remote, which prevents the DirecTV remote from being able to control the box (there's another command to re-enable it). Good if you want to prevent somebody from circumventing the serial control and ruining your recordings (or just preventing accidental remote-controlling).